First day of school brings new teaching methods

Share this:

Kimberly Elementary’s Marla Vega looks through a new book her second-grade class received for the upcoming school year.

Kimberly Elementary teacher Renee Schrier (left) and assistant Amy Ruhl (right) prepare their third-grade classroom for the start of a new school year, Tuesday. Redlands Unified School District students return to the classroom today.

REDLANDS >> The plastic-wrapped workbooks and new textbooks stacked on the desks inside Marla Vega’s second-grade classroom at Kimberly Elementary School are part of a new curriculum to be implemented today when the school year kicks off.

This school year will serve as a pilot program for the new standards adopted by California before tests are administered in spring 2015 to assess student performance. New teaching methods associated with the Common Core State Standards focus on real-world application instead of memorizing facts and figures, according to Pedro Garcia, University of Southern California clinical education professor.

“It’s a whole different way of testing to prepare students for a more global society,” Garcia said, adding that teachers will be challenged as well.

On Monday, Kimberly School teachers participated in a training session to help them alter their teaching methods to align with the new standards.

“We’re still learning,” Vega said. “It’s going to take us awhile to get used to it.”

Specifically, in her second-grade classroom, Vega’s students will be reading a balance of fiction and non-fiction stories that involve more complicated vocabulary, reading and writing.

Third-grade teachers will cover the same topics as before, like multiplication, cursive writing and the solar system, but students will learn differently.

Theresa Olivo has laminated “thinking maps” and other tools to encourage her students to learn the why, instead of memorizing facts.

Another benefit of the common standards will be the ability to compare California students to their counterparts from the 44 other states that have adopted the Common Core State Standards, according to Garcia.

Prior to the CCSS, states participated in different tests and had varying ways of measuring proficiency.

“There was no proper way of comparing state to state,” Garcia said.

The new standards were also designed to improve American student scores on the Program for International Student Assessment, a test 15-year-olds from dozens of countries complete every three years. Garcia said America typically ranks in the teens or twenties, depending on the subject.

There isn’t much data available to predict how the new standards will affect test scores, according to Garcia, who predicts students will prefer the new teaching strategies.

“I think kids will enjoy it more, because it will be more hands-on application,” he said. “It’s getting away from the lecture thing and is more about getting your hands dirty.”